An Investigation Of The Learning Strategy Use Of College English Learners

Language learning strategy use of L2 or FL learners has aroused more andmore attentions from language education researchers and linguists ever sincethe 1970s. Researchers have found that to explore the learning strategy use ofgood (successful) language learners is a profitable way of ascertaining effectiveL2 or FL learning strategies.Using questionnaire, this paper investigates the pattern of learning strategyuse of non-English major undergraduates of Tsinghua University. It examinesthe relationship between the learners' strategy use and their English proficiency(represented by test scores in Tsinghua English Proficiency Test – Level One),explores differences in English learning strategy use between good (successful,effective) college English learners and poor (unsuccessful, ineffective) ones toidentify the learning strategies preferred by good college English learners in thisuniversity, and in addition, studies the effects of other learner variables such as age,grade and gender on college English learners' learning strategy use. It is found that:1) there is a significant positive correlation between learners' strategy use and theirEnglish proficiency both at the category level and as a whole. In terms of strategycategories, use of control strategies has the most significant correlation with thelearners' English proficiency;2) significant differences exist between the learningstrategy use of the good college English learners and that of the poor learners. Atthe category level and as a whole, good college English learners use learningstrategies at significantly higher frequencies than poor ones;at specific strategy itemlevel, good college English learners make highly frequent use of a much largernumber of language learning strategies than the poor ones. Moreover, good andpoor college English learners use eighty-eight strategies (more than 61.1% of the total)at significantly different mean frequencies;3) as for the three learner variablesexamined in the present study, only gender has a significant impact on learners'strategy use, while age and grade merely demonstrate very low negative correlationwith overall strategy use of the college English learners;at the category level and as awhole, female college English learners use learning strategies at significantly higherfrequencies than male ones;furthermore, female and male college English learnersuse forty-five strategies at significantly different mean frequencies;4) an examinationof the 56 learning strategies typical of good college English learners and 11 strategiestypical of poor college English learner reveals that good and poor college Englishlearners differ not only in the quantity but also in the quality of learning strategy usesince the former ones appear to be both more sophisticated and more interactive whilethe later ones show the trend of avoiding communication and being insolated fromothers.Findings of this study which indicate that learning strategy use is in positivecorrelation with English proficiency highlight the significance of the exploration ofgood college English learners' learning strategy use. Poor college English learnersmay have a try using the strategies identified to be typical of good college Englishlearners and see whether these strategies can benefit them. Besides, college Englishteachers may incorporate the findings of this study into future college Englishteaching and strategy training programs so that any potential benefits might be madeavailable to their students.